A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

"There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate." --A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens.

Lost And Abandoned, John Crowley

"Love costs money; so love makes money, or is willing to try." --Lost and Abandoned, 
John Crowley


Found this in an anthology of short stories based on fairy tales called Black Swan, White Raven. It sums up such a simple truth that so few people want to admit to...

The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives In Missiological Anthropology, Louis J. Luzbetak

"What one learns in early life tends to persist more than what is learned in later life. Certain sexual tendencies, speech habits, gestures and facial expressions, fear of black magic and wicked spirits, and fondness for certain foods--all of which are associated with early learning--are among the most difficult of habits to change. Voodoo persists for a variety of reasons, not least of all because it is associated with early life experiences. Health programs meet stiff opposition when new dietary habits are suggested because they go counter to the pleasant and satisfying childhood experiences associated with eating."

-from The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology, Louis J. Luzbetak.

Castrating Culture, Dewi Hughes

"As stated above, modernists expect ethnic diversity to diminish as nation states get bigger and bigger. The ultimate ideal is one universal nation state where everyone can enjoy the freedom to create and consume. It is at this point that the idea of humanity will be finally realized. This echo of Babel is a frightening thought in a world where human beings are not very good at handling power."

-from Castrating Culture, Dewi Hughes

(If anyone has a website for this author, please share in the comments. Supposedly he's the theological advisor to Tearfund, but I can't find hide or hair of him on their site. Oh well...)

Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

"Large numbers of young people, raised in rigidly structured and industrially oriented cultures, violently reject industrialism and seek instead some modified version of the agricultural lifestyle that their forebears(debatably) enjoyed, including extended communal families and in some instances a barter economy in miniature. Children starve while boots costing many thousands of dollars leave their mark upon the surface of the moon. We have labored long to build a heaven, only to find it populated with horrors.

~from Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Phillip Jenkins

"Christianity has never been synonymous with either Europe or the West."

~from The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Phillip Jenkins

Good Hair, Benilde Little

"'First of all,' she said with her back to me and sounding like God, 'you are not havin' a breakdown. We don't break down. We may make other people do that, but we don't, so you cannot have one. That woman I worked for, she has breakdowns, which is why she calls me every damn day, 'cause she can't figure out nothin' for herself and she's been given everything her whole life. You, my little girlfriend, come from folks so damn strong-willed that they had to leave the South or White folks was just gon' be forced to kill 'em. You couldn't have no will like that and be a Black man in the South, you understand that. Now, I don't know all of what's bothering you, I do know you can figure out how to get what you want from that paper, and if they can't give it to you, then you go look for somethin' else, and when you find it, then you leave, but you don't just git up and go without someplace else to go.'"

~from Good Hair, Benilde Little